KVP seeks white paper on Polavaram project

January 03, 2017 07:41 pm | Updated 07:41 pm IST - HYDERABAD:

Rajya Sabha member K.V.P. Ramachandra Rao has demanded that the Telugu Desam Government release a white paper on the progress of works and expenditure incurred on the Polavaram Project so far.

The white paper should incorporate factors including the clearances secured, initial cost estimates and escalated costs ever since the TDP Government took over the reins, source of finance, costs relating to drinking and power components of the project and specific time frame by which the project would be completed.

Project execution

Mr. Ramachandra Rao criticised Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu for mortgaging the interests of the State including the coveted special category status to ensure that the State Government executes the project rather than the Centre in spite of it being declared as a national project.

He alleged that the Government had decided to execute the project in lure of commissions involved in the multi-crore project whose cost estimates had been indiscriminately hiked. Mr. Naidu on his part was trying to take entire credit for the Polavaram project works, which were initiated during the previous Congress regime.

“Mr. Naidu went ahead to remove the name of former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, who gave political life to him by giving MLA ticket and subsequently ministerial portfolio,” he said.

Naming project

He recalled that all the clearances for the project were secured in the name of Indirasagar Polavaram Project by the Government of the erstwhile united State and 80 per cent of works on the right and left canals were completed before previous elections.

“The Congress Government had drafted an ordinance declaring Polavaram as a national project, but that did not get the Presidential assent as the election code of conduct had come into effect by then,” he said.

The BJP Government, which came to power subsequently, modified the same draft removing the clauses relating to special category status to Andhra Pradesh and reissued the ordinance. The Congress MP pooh-poohed Mr. Naidu’s claims that Polavaram was his dream project and his Government had taken all necessary measures to complete it.

Questions Naidu

“Why was Mr. Naidu silent on the project during the 16 years of TDP rule in the united State? Did he ever visit the site during his nine-year tenure as Chief Minister?” he said.

Mr. Ramachandra Rao criticised the Chief Minister for his claims that some people who were against the development of the State were creating obstacles to the project. “It was at the behest of Mr. Naidu, then in Opposition, cases were filed against land acquisition and works were stopped,” he recalled.

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